Conflict of Interest

Rowan University recognizes and has addressed the need to establish safeguards to prevent employees, collaborators, subcontractors, subrecipients, and visiting scientists from using their positions for purposes that are, or give the appearance of being motivated by a desire for financial gain for themselves or others. Significant financial and personal interests are not limited to salaries and payments. It can also include any interest held by the investigator and his/her immediate family in a business entity (company, corporation, or other enterprise) whose financial interest might reasonably appear to be affected by such activities.

Conflict of Interest Administration and Contacts:

Conflict of Interest Policy

Please note that the current policy is in revision and the revised, updated policy will be posted upon approval. For now, please follow the current policy, and the Conflicts of Interest Administration may require additional information when reviewing and processing conflict of interests or significant financial interests.

School of Osteopathic Medicine

All faculty, staff, and students at RowanSOM and any collaborators or consultants working with RowanSOM are required to adhere and follow the polilcy titled: Industry Relations with Physicians and Continuing Medical Education policy in addition to the Rowan University Conflicts of Interest Policy above. Please contact the School of Osteopathic Medicine's Dean's Office for more information regarding the policy.

Investigator Financial and Other Personal Interest Form

When completing the form below, please make sure that you provide an explanation of the significant financial interest at the bottom of Part 2 of the form or attach a brief explanation of any financial interest reported as it relates to the project and the investigator's institutional responsibilities.

The Investigator Financial and Other Personal Interest form must be completed for any grant or sponsored project whose funding agency (sponsor) is NSF or PHS/DHHS agency.

Public Health Services revised the existing Financial Conflict of Interest Regulation, Promoting Objectivity in Research, which took effect on August 24, 2012. Any institution receiving Public Health Service (PHS) funds from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other PHS operational agencies must be able to demonstrate greater transparency and accountability regarding financial conflict of interest management and reporting. The revised regulations focus solely on PHS and PHS Operational Agencies, and when the purpose of the funding is research.

The revised regulations require that all investigators submitting proposals to PHS and its operational agencies receive training in Financial Conflicts of Interest, which will be administered using the CITI website training program, and submit Significant Financial Interests to the Office of Sponsored Programs prior to spending any amount of awarded funds. Rowan University, through its Conflict of Interest Committee (COIC), formerly known as Disclosure Review Committee, must review all Significant Financial Interests submitted by investigators to determine whether a Financial Conflict of Interest exists prior to expenditure of awarded funds. If a Financial Conflict of Interest does exist, a Management Plan may be put into place, and the conflict is subject to be made available to the public upon request.

Requirements for Lead Principal Investigators, Co-Principal Investigators and other Key Personnel

Prior to award/release of funds by OSP, the following should be submitted to the Conflict of Interest Committee and the OSP Director:

Complete CITI Conflicts of Interest Training

Complete and submit Investigator Financial and Other Personal Interest Form

Examples of Public Health Services Operating Agencies:

Administration for Children and Families (ACF)

Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF)

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMMS)

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

Please complete the form above titled Investigator Financial and Other Personal Interest Form to report and submit a Significant Financial Interest (SFI) to the Office of Research Compliance and Office of Sponsored Programs.

Public Disclosure Requests

Pertaining to the PHS revised regulations, the public can request information about conflict of interests related to PHS / PHS agency funding. Rowan University abides by the regulation, and please click on the link below to review Rowan University's public statement and how to obtain information related to financial conflict of interests.

In accordance with National Science Foundation (NSF), significant financial interests must be reported during a proposal submission to the Office of Sponsored Programs.

CITI Training Instructions

New to CITI? Never created a CITI User Account? Please follow the directions below:

Use the link above to access the CITI program

Click on the link "New Users: Register Here"

Select Rowan University as the Participating Institution

Include your Banner ID in the box requesting employee ID

Use your Rowan University email address in the box requesting an email

After creating your profile, you will need to select the appropriate training. Select Conflicts of Interest Mini-Course

For any and all training that is not Conflict of Interest training, please mark the box saying "Not at this Time" or "Not Applicable" or if that option is not available, leave blank and do not select any training

Already have a CITI account? Transfered from another University or recent hire that already has an exiting CITI account? Please follow the directions below:

Existing CITI users:

Use the link above to access the CITI program

Go into your profile

Select Add a Course or Update Learner Groups

Select Conflicts of Interest Mini-course

Transfers and recent hires that already have an existing CITI account:

Use the link above to access the CITI program

Select "Click here to affiliate with another institution"
Select Rowan University

Go into your Rowan University newly created profile and verify that the affiliation change went through

Note, you may have to select Remove affiliation and identify your former institution